Thrust bearing assemblies, in particular for turbines, are known, and generally comprise a supporting ring, a casing, a leverage mechanism housed within said casing, tilting pads for contacting rotor, and supporting discs. The leverage mechanism comprises two rows of levering plates. The thrust bearing is usually filled with oil, ensuring smoother function.
Thrust bearings are designed to carry loads at high speeds in turbomachinery and to accommodate misalignment or deflection. However, the current thrust bearings still suffer from unequal distribution of the forces caused by the rotor, and by lack of smooth action in said distribution. Unequal distribution of the forces results in overheating of the more loaded part and in jamming of the turbine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,864 provides an improvement relying on adjusting the shape of the contact surfaces of the levering plates. This solution appears to be feasible only for a smaller number of tilting pads (e.g. 6 tilting pads). This imposes constructional limitations.
JP2013050144 allows the movement of the levering plates along one axis, however, this solution has very high technological and accuracy requirements in production.